Several times over the years, I've had celebrity interviewees use almost exactly the same words -- sometimes with a bit of snark -- to describe the process of promoting a film.

"The acting I do for free. I get paid to talk to you."

If Jim Carrey ever subscribed to that notion, then he's planning on stiffing the producers of Kick-Ass 2, for whom he donated his acting efforts while on location in Toronto.

The movie, the follow-up to Matthew Vaughn's fun, cartoony 2010 film about young, wannabe superheroes (and supervillains), features Carrey as a vigilante named Col. Stars and Stripes.

We apparently won't get to hear about his character's motivation, since Carrey has announced on Twitter that he won't promote the movie. Seems the Sandy Hook Elementary School killings have put him off violent entertainment, and he won't be a party to whatever connection there is, if any, between fake guns and real.

Instead, we'll stick to what Carrey does for a living, and his responsibility to his employers.

Sure, we'd like it if actors warned us that their next movie is a stinker, and saved us a few bucks at the ticket window. But there are reasons it's fairly rare to hear actors slag their movie.

One is, good or bad, a Hollywood-scale movie is the work of thousands of people, from wardrobe to makeup to dolly grips to Foley mixers. Most of them, especially the Canadian crew, are paid upfront and have no vested interest in how the movie does at the box office (except insofar as they might like to be hired for a sequel, or see the studio that hired them stay in business).

The key cast and filmmakers, however, are usually in for a percentage, preferably of gross receipts.

Carrey may think he's putting his money where his mouth is by risking his piece of the action. In reality, he's risking other people's money as well.

And for what? His St.-Paul-on-the-Road-to-Damascus revelation that he'll have blood on his hands if he shows up for an interview and says the cast and crew of Kick-Ass 2 were "one big happy family?"

I'm not sure how big a club Jim Carrey swings anymore in Hollywood, but it's very possible his announcement is legally shaky. He knew the level of violence to expect going in (one of the characters was burned to death in the original, and young actress Chloe Grace Moretz pulled off one of the most exciting fight scenes in recent memory). And, as opposed to calling in sick for the interviews, he has announced advance intent.

Maybe that's on purpose, and Carrey's willing to play the martyr in the face of lawyers' letters.

Whatever. His iffy and courageously-empty moral stance is likely to make more people want to see Kick-Ass 2, not fewer.

LIZ BRAUN, QMI Agency

It's no secret that actors hate doing the publicity rounds. Who could blame them? Their handlers have ensured that the process is so controlled, so bland and so sanitized that priority one is not dozing off while an actor talks about all the friends he made on set.

And how he insists on doing his own stunts. And how great the director is. Riveting.

Jim Carrey's refusal to help promote Kick-Ass 2 is by no means a first, although his reasons are certainly more interesting than most. When Ed Norton refused to promote The Incredible Hulk, for example, it was said he was sulking because the character proved to be more about action and less about character than he had hoped. Poor baby.

Last year, Sean Connery -- to some the only James Bond -- refused to help promote a 50th anniversary boxed set of the Bond films. Connery is alleged to be fuming still over his past financial treatment by the producers. Pierce Brosnan and Roger Moore did their bit, but Connery was 'retired' and staying retired.

Ego. Money. Temper. Self-interest of one sort or another. These are the usual reasons an actor refuses to help sell the product. Carrey's change of heart over violence and gun control in America seems different.

Carrey tweeted, "I did Kickass (sic) a month before Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence."

Carrey is an outspoken supporter of gun control. That very silly (and hilarious) video he did, Cold Dead Hand, to show his feelings on the subject won him personal insults and offers of violent reprisal. What looked like the entire staff of Fox News, usually in spittle-flecked high dudgeon, took turns trashing him for it.

As a Canadian, Carrey may well have underestimated the passion and reverence Americans feel for their weapons. At any rate, Kick-Ass 2 involves high school-age characters, and that may have helped Carrey decide not to go any further with his involvement in the movie. In the off chance you didn't notice, a lot of these mass shootings take place at schools and colleges.

Carrey's is a refreshing stance; one rarely sees anyone in Hollywood stand up for anything. He put his money where his mouth is when he did Cold Dead Hand, and took the heat for it, which leads us to believe that he's telling the truth about not wanting to promote Kick-Ass 2.

Of course, one wonders if this should be taken at face value.

Carrey's character in the movie is a Born-Again Christian who makes a point of never using a gun, so in that way his not promoting the movie doesn't really make sense.

Maybe there are other reasons why the comic isn't taking part? The reaction to his Cold Dead Hand video was so over-the-top that it may have dictated his current withdrawal from promoting Kick-Ass 2. If reporters were going to ask Carrey about his support of gun control and not about the movie, that would be a problem.

We'd like to think Carrey's statement about anti-violence is just what it appears to be.